Honeybee colonies organise complex societies without any central authority issuing commands. A new study shows how specific inhibitory circuits in the brain enforce the age-based division of labour that keeps these societies functioning, offering a window into the neural basis of natural cooperation.
Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on 13 July 2026, the research demonstrates that dsx-expressing cells exert an inhibitory role on age-dependent retinue behaviour in honeybees. Older worker bees retain a latent capacity to respond to queen mandibular pheromone and perform tasks typically associated with younger individuals, yet under normal conditions these responses remain switched off.
Scientists from Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf and their collaborators employed a chemogenetic approach to silence the electrical activity of these dsx-expressing neurons. They expressed the hM4Di receptor under the dsx promoter and fed the synthetic ligand C21 to older worker bees. The result was striking: silencing dsx+ cells caused the older bees to display retinue-like behaviours in response to the queen's pheromone, behaviours they otherwise suppressed.
Reversible control of social tasks
The older worker bees then resumed caring for the queen, which only younger bees would do otherwise. When the circuits were not inhibited, the bees exhibited their normal, age-dependent behaviour. In this way, we were able to control which tasks the worker bees performed, said Jana Seiler, reflecting on the experimental findings.
This work builds on earlier observations that inactivation of the doublesex (dsx) gene could prompt older workers to resume queen-care tasks. The current study advances understanding by showing that the electrical activity of dsx-expressing neurons actively inhibits the expression of young-bee behaviours. The approach used a non-invasive tool, allowing reversible silencing of specific circuits and demonstrating flexible shifts in task performance.
The dsx gene itself plays a part in worker-specific nervous system wiring and the expression of behaviours unique to workers. These dsx-expressing cells appear in populations of neurons within the mushroom body, including class I and II Kenyon cells, the antennal nerve, and cortical regions of the olfactory glomeruli. Their activity helps bridge polyethism — the age-dependent division of labour — with its neural implementation through reversible changes in circuit properties and crosstalk between different brain regions.
